Our co-founder and Managing Partner Daniel Farrington was recently interviewed for Pet Insight Magazine – a publication dedicated to bringing the pet industry closer. Read the full interview below…
How does HomeoPet identify and adapt its product line to reflect evolving market needs?
Given the current uncertainty, HomeoPet have put new product development on a temporary hiatus and redirected our marketing team’s efforts towards addressing and responding to the increased number of customers concerned for their pets’ health and welfare, with some questions coming to our team that have never been raised before such as “if my animal comes in contact with another animal can they pass the virus on?
Social distancing has changed the fundamental dynamic of “normal” family life and how the consumer market is being serviced by goods and service providers is experiencing a seismic shift. With greater time at home to research ‘alternative’ treatments and services, consumers now have time to reflect on their purchasing habits and the types of products that they consume, both for themselves and their pets. We are working to ensure we are there for them and part of the conversation.
With so many out of work and struggling to keep the show on the road HomeoPet’s range of reasonable priced natural medicines being readily available instore and online are more relevant now than ever before.
What measures does HomeoPet employ to sustain growth while ensuring a level playing field across retail channels?
For now, HomeoPet is more concerned with sustaining our employee’s jobs, while keeping them and their families safe, than we are with growth. Growth is tomorrow’s problem, today it is about sustainability and the lives of those close to us.
There is no doubt that some industries are seeing unprecedented growth, such as grocers and online shopping, but for a vast majority of businesses it is about survival. There will be many casualties from this pandemic. Not just the tragic loss of life from illness, but also the death of SME’s and small family businesses, hand to mouth operations who simply won’t be able to weather this storm. Our current efforts are around running lean, keeping our employees focused on activities that keep them engaged, by undertaking worthwhile and meaningful activities, whilst ensuring that we can keep our loyal customers supplied with the medicines they need for their pets. If we can sustain through these troubling times, then tomorrow we can look to grow and flourish.
What are some preconceived notions HomeoPet has had to address and/or misperceptions you’ve had to dispel about the category?
For many years, our category has been a niche player in the animal health/medicine category. That has significantly changed. Now that people are finding the real value to our safe natural medicines, HomeoPet have been thrust into the main stream and we have an ever increasing responsibility to ensure continued supply and the availability of easy to understand information around this category. Our primary focus is to ensure that our loyal customers continue to be serviced well and that this new wave of customers are integrated into the HomeoPet family by getting the information they require to get the very best from our range.
Which areas of the Feline Health and Wellness category has HomeoPet been focusing on to help differentiate products in the overall category?
Cat owners are extremely particular and knowledgeable about their animals, so we look to ensure that we are just as particular about the quality and information pertaining to our products. Our team works hard to deliver information that is both helpful and pertinent to a cat’s needs and to always be on hand to answer any questions or queries that cat owners may have, whether that’s a question specifically related to one of our products or regarding a general health issue their cat may be facing.
